INTRODUCTION 



OTTO MEYERHOF 

 A TRIBUTE ON HIS 65th BIRTDAY (APRIL 12, 1949) 



by 



DAVID NACHMANSOHN, M.D. 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. {U.S. A 



The scientific work of Otto Meyerhof has profoundly influenced the development 

 of Physiology and Biochemistry of the last three decades. By the originality of his 

 approach, the elegance of his methods, and the wide range of his knowledge and his 

 interests he became a pioneer in many fields. 



Otto Meyerhof received his degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of 

 Heidelberg in 1909. Under the influence of Otto Warburg his interest turned to cellular 

 physiology, especially to aspects concerning energy transformations. The association 

 of these two great scientific figures was extremely fruitful and important for the devel- 

 opment of this field. 



In 1913 Otto Meyerhof became Privatdozent in Kiel and in 191S Professor extra- 

 ordinarius. It was there that Meyerhof started the brilliant work on muscular contrac- 

 tion with which his name will always remain connected and for which he received the 

 Nobel prize in 1923, jointly with A. V. Hill. In 1924 he moved to the Kaiser Wilhelm 

 Institute for Biology in Berlin Dahlem, and in 1929 he became head of the Department 

 of Physiology in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for medical research in Heidelberg. 



The outstanding feature of Otto Meyerhof's work on muscle is the first really 

 successful attempt to correlate chemical and physical processes of cellular function. 

 He was able to establish such correlations in a great variety of ways and with amazing 

 ingenuity. During these investigations he maintained a continuous exchange of views 

 and information with A. V. Hill. The collaboration between these two men who have 

 maintained a close personal friendship over decades was most fortunate and essential 

 for the development of muscle physiology. These two names will continue to be linked 

 in the History of Science. 



In the course of his research on intermediary metabolism in active and resting 

 muscle, Otto Meyerhof discovered many fundamental laws which greatly stimulated 

 the whole of Biochemistry in general. Among his many achievements may be reckoned 

 the clarification of the Pasteur reaction. He showed that oxygen consumption prevented 

 3 to 6 times the equivalent amount of lactic acid formation in muscle. Otto Warburg 

 later found the same principle to be true in the glycolysis of tumor cells and Meyerhof 

 in yeast fermentation. Meyerhof's discovery thus proved and extended Pasteur's 

 hypothesis that fermentation is "la vie sans air'", i.e., to a certain extent substituted 

 respiration, whereas in the absence of respiration fermentation increases. Pasteur has 

 proposed this assumption but was unable to verify it, because he used cultivated yeast 

 in which respiration is negligible compared with fermentation. This reaction in the 



